Thursday, April 9, 1998 | 8:34 a.m.
But opponents of the $1.8 billion plan say the black mayor of this overwhelmingly black city will give away the store to outside white interests if the council approves the casino proposal.
The City Council could vote today on Mayor Dennis Archer's plan that he says will bring 11,000 full-time jobs and tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for the struggling city of 1 million people. The council meeting was scheduled for this afternoon.
Archer gave the nine-member council a Friday deadline to pass the plan or risk torpedoing the project.
"Detroit cannot continue to be a boom-or-bust economy," Archer told the council Tuesday. "There is no other economic development initiative that provides that kind of opportunity."
He said the timetable to present a plan to the Michigan Gaming Control Board is "extremely tight" and a failure to act this week would endanger financing and embolden casino opponents statewide.
At least one council member expressed reservation over voting so quickly.
"We have so little information that it's ludicrous," said Maryann Mahaffey, president pro tem.
Council President Gill Hill disagreed. He said the city needs the economic boosts and the jobs.
"I think it's time to vote," Hill told reporters Wednesday.
Some of those opponents fear casinos will breed crime and feed gambling addictions, while others object to putting the casinos so close to precious waterfront property. The proposed 57-acre site is in a warehouse district near downtown on the Detroit River.
But race has emerged as the most contentious issue.
Detroit's second black mayor has faced accusations that he is ignoring the needs of black residents, who make up 80 percent of the city's population.
They fault Archer for passing over black applicants in awarding all three available casino franchises to the MGM Grand, Atwater/Circus Circus and Greektown/Chippewa Indians groups.
"Imagine a city that's 80 percent white and a white mayor and 80 percent white council chose three African-American casinos for their city," former Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins said at a council hearing. "Can you imagine that in these United States?"
Businessman Don Barden, a former cable TV magnate whose casino application was one of those rejected, was blunter. In remarks at a church Friday, Barden called Archer "a mis-educated Negro," adding, "We've got to get that sucker out of office," the Detroit Free Press reported.
Archer pointed out that blacks and Indians together hold a majority stake in the Greektown casino group, and blacks are guaranteed a big piece of the action when it comes to contracts and hiring.
"Making one African-American richer does not constitute black empowerment," Archer said.
A ballot initiative in August seeks to force the city to create a black-owned casino.
As evidence that's he is looking out for all of the city's residents, Archer points to estimates that casinos will generate $130 million in gambling tax revenue and $50 million in property taxes and become the city's sixth-largest employer, just behind General Motors Corp.
This isn't the first time the mayor's black credentials have been questioned.
A former state Supreme Court justice, Archer won election by promising to build bridges to the city's mostly white suburbs, in contrast to the confrontational style of his predecessor, the late Coleman Young.
Gambling would give a boost to a city that has been on a 40-year slide. Since the late 1950s, most of Detroit's jobs and nearly half of its people have left, driven out by the decline of the Big Three automakers. The debilitating effect of decades of white flight also were made worse by the 1967 race riots that killed 43 people and caused $60 million in damage.
Supporters of bringing gambling to Detroit point across the Canadian border to two casinos in Windsor, Ontario, where business is booming and an expansion already is in the works. Indian tribes also have opened casinos on reservations across northern Michigan.
David Anders, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston, said that while he doesn't see Detroit attracting national gamblers, like Reno, Nev., or Las Vegas, the Motor City could flourish by drawing bettors from the local area, much like Atlantic City, N.J.
"There is a real opportunity just given the sheer number of people that live in the Detroit metropolitan area and within a three-hour drive," he said.
But it is race, rather than the potential windfall, that is creating sharp divisions among city leaders - divisions that could take a long time to heal.
"I hope that they can get along after this," said political analyst Mario Morrow.
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